Chinese Cinderella is an autobiographical book written by Adeline Yen Mah who not only writes about her life but more about how she became successful. The book starts from when Mah is about five years old, then goes up to her early teens, most of the action takes place when she’s a young girl. Mah grew up with a big “family” however, this family was different, it was as if everyone was for themselves and tried to outshine one another rather then being one. Mah grew up around negativity. Ever since Mah’s mother passed away her brothers and sisters held a grudge towards her which was very hard to deal with. Even though she was always around negativity she still succeeded in life to show her family that she couldn’t be broke. Mah dealt with a “family” who didn’t even treat her like she belonged but more of an outcast.
The story starts to shift and brings the readers to a knowledge and better understanding of who Adeline Yen Mah really is. The book goes from family, to school, and her obstacles. In school Mah was an outstanding student, which may have been a problem. Since Mah was so smart, hardworking, and caring, she had no one supporting her in her success, instead she was criticized mainly by her family. Mah notices that family can be the ones that really hurt you more than anything. Mah’s family basically made Mah want to push herself more because no one else would so she did what she had to do.
“Take that! Medal Winner! Teacher’s Pet! Who do you think you are? Showing off week after week?” (Mah 13).
The quote above was said by Mah’s big sister. When big sister says this it really catches my attention. It just shows that Madeline has haters, which is so despicable because it’s actually her big sister. Throughout the book Mah goes through her older siblings picking on her because of her intelligence, awards for doing well in school, and just being such a good girl. Big sister finds everything Mah does as an insult, but I just never understood why until I finished reading the book. It made more sense because big sister never did so well in school, and she just probably wished that Mah was like the rest of them. However, Mah was different. Mah wanted to become someone, and go somewhere in life besides staying home with the family. This quote is telling us that Mah didn’t even have to work as hard because she’s always moving on forward, and never falls back no matter who tries their hardest to bring others down when their already down.
